With its open kitchen concept, customers can get to see their food being prepared before it is served piping hot on their table.

Don’t hold your breath, though. The staff busily grilling your satay, tossing the roti canai or pulling the teh tarik can be a Nigerian, Hungarian, Romanian, or even from Sierra Leone.

It’s amazing that a bunch of young and passionate non-Malaysians, who have never heard of or tasted Malaysian dishes in their lives, are actually preparing them with gusto.

And all this is happening right here in London. You can thus savour your favourite nasi goreng kampung, mee bandung, laksa, satay, roti canai or even nasi ayam kukus (which is Hainanese Chicken Rice) that is as good as, if not better than, those prepared by Malaysians.

Welcome to JomMakan Restaurant, the 140-seat prototype flagship restaurant in the heart of the capital city’s West End, which is cooking up a storm in Britain.

The outlet is the first quick service restaurant (QSR) under the Malaysia Kitchen franchise programme aimed at promoting JomMakan restaurants worldwide.

Through this concept, Malaysia hopes to set up 200 Malaysia Kitchen outlets globally by 2010, including in major cities like Frankfurt, Berlin, Belgium, Sweden, San Francisco, New York and Sydney.